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A Song of Ice and Fire: The pilot is so close you can taste the incest.

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Game reviews are setting the bar on a different planet from other reviews.

For music and movies, and I'd imagine TV, but I don't watch TV and consequently don't read about it, reviews are way more important and reliable and readable and proven effective in ways that video game reviews can't touch yet.

I didn't have much faith in television reviews anyway, but the little I had left was pretty much scraped out of me when I looked up reviews of Camelot (after mocking my way through the first two ludicrously bad episodes), and saw what I thought were reasonable, trustworthy sources (Chicago Sun-Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times) gushing about how stylish and intense it was, and how masterly the acting was, until I started to wonder if they had even watched the same goddamned show as I did.

So, I haven't read any reviews for Game of Thrones. I don't care to. I am a great devotee of the books, I am generally a fan of the HBO/Showtime series (Starz can suck a dick, though), I will enjoy watching the pilot on Sunday, then I will form my own opinion of it.

I'm here to tell you about voting. Imagine you're locked in a huge underground nightclub filled with sinners, whores, freaks and unnameable things that rape pit bulls for fun. And you ain't allowed out until you all vote on what you're going to do tonight [. . .] So you vote for television, and everyone else, as far as your eye can see, votes to fuck you with switchblades. That's voting. You're welcome.

ARGH! Last year, the wife and I swapped book series when she was excited about the Guardians of Ga'hoole movie and I the looming Game of Thrones release. No surprise, its taken her longer to get through Game of Thrones than I through the first couple of Guardians books (reading them to my daughter at bedtime). Within the past month, though, she finished GoT and is now halfway through CoK. Better yet, she's devouring up show news as much as, if not more than, myself. But today, I learned that while she was sating her curiousity online whether Arya and Nymeria ever reunite, she has accidently spoiled herself on the *that* part of Storm of Swords. I've been denied the joy of seeing her get her guts stomped on, not fair at all! At least she hasn't spoiled all of SoS for herself so there's still a few shocking moments to come.

My wife knows hardly anything about this world other than the 15 minute preview they showed, and she is quite intrigued. I cannot wait to watch her experience this story, but I am kind of worried about how I should act. for instance...

Episode 1 spoiler....major.

Spoiler:

...pretty much the entire point of the first episode is seeing bran get flung from that tower. It's the initial hook to the entire season. So how do I play it? She's obviously going to want to know whether or not he lives, and that's what David and Dan are going for. That's what is going to bring people back for the next episode. So as we see Bran through the first episode...should I be detached? She knows that I know what happens...so if I reacted to Bran at all, she would likely know that he lives past the first freaking episode...it's a quandary. Ok, so I'm over-thinking it. I may have been drinking.

Every time any character shows up on screen go "He dies." "She's not dead yet?" "I thought they were murdered already." "They wont end well.". Then she wont know who really dies and she'll be totally surprised when it's everyone!

Just say "He'll be fine!" sarcastically. In the same tone of voice you would if you were say, watching Die Hard or something and people get repeatedly brutalized.

The thing that upset me the most about the Patterson review is that I think it was written to anger fans of the series and drive page hits, and I clicked on it. It was hard to take seriously when "dragon-ridden" is in the headline. Granted, it's been a few years since I've read Game of Thrones, but I don't recall it featuring dragons prominently.

The thing that upset me the most about the Patterson review is that I think it was written to anger fans of the series and drive page hits, and I clicked on it. It was hard to take seriously when "dragon-ridden" is in the headline. Granted, it's been a few years since I've read Game of Thrones, but I don't recall it featuring dragons prominently.

Dragons actually are a significant part of the series. But I wouldn't consider it dragon-ridden, since

The thing that upset me the most about the Patterson review is that I think it was written to anger fans of the series and drive page hits, and I clicked on it. It was hard to take seriously when "dragon-ridden" is in the headline. Granted, it's been a few years since I've read Game of Thrones, but I don't recall it featuring dragons prominently.

The thing that upset me the most about the Patterson review is that I think it was written to anger fans of the series and drive page hits, and I clicked on it. It was hard to take seriously when "dragon-ridden" is in the headline. Granted, it's been a few years since I've read Game of Thrones, but I don't recall it featuring dragons prominently.

Spoiler:

Dragons are in A Game of Thrones for exactly one page

Spoiler:

Having read the first three books in a span of six weeks or so they tend to blend together. I didn't recall when exactly the eggs hatched, but the idea that you would say that Game of Thrones is "dragon-ridden" is absurd.

The thing that upset me the most about the Patterson review is that I think it was written to anger fans of the series and drive page hits, and I clicked on it. It was hard to take seriously when "dragon-ridden" is in the headline. Granted, it's been a few years since I've read Game of Thrones, but I don't recall it featuring dragons prominently.

Spoiler:

Dragons are in A Game of Thrones for exactly one page

Spoiler:

Having read the first three books in a span of six weeks or so they tend to blend together. I didn't recall when exactly the eggs hatched, but the idea that you would say that Game of Thrones is "dragon-ridden" is absurd.

Spoiler:

They hatched in Drogo's funeral pyre, in the very last chapter of the book.

Imagine if a review of "Deadwood" had mocked the very idea of a Western series telling morally complex adult stories, or if a review of "The Sopranos" proceeded from the assumption that gangster tales are inherently worthless as popular art. You can't. It's unthinkable.

I have a feeling this guy's going to be in for a surprise if he continues past the first six episodes. Unless they secretly abandoned the idea of doing the whole first book in the first season, things are going to get fast once the show gets the necessary exposition out of the way.

I signed up on Friday, practically only because of this show. But I've already seen some side benefits: I DVRed ET (yeah, the one with the alien) for future viewing. Somehow I have never seen that movie.

I'm also DVRing the premier episode, because of the Knicks and Celtics.

Very excited for the premiere and now that I've finally been able to watch it... I'll go with a solid B. As an FYI I've read all 4 books so following along wasn't a huge issue. The wife, having no knowledge of the series, seemed to understand it all. Though I did provide some background details here and there..

Pros: Settings were fantastic and they did a great job of pulling you into the show. Atmosphere was great. I felt that most of the actors did an amazing job with the little time they had on screen. Jamie was cocky and fun but not annoying, and the scene between him and his brother was one of my favs.

Cons: By having so many characters, inevitably some don't get fleshed out and are overlooked. Not much interaction between the Stark brothers though I'm sure this will change. The transitions between the Targaryens and Winterfell felt abrupt at some points. The settings are completely different so it's not hard to follow, but still these scene changes felt jilted.

I think they did a great job and I'm definitely hooked. Granted, they'd have to completely bomb this pilot for me not to tune in.

I'm going into this series completely cold, having never read the books. I do watch a lot of series which have pretty thick plots and many characters, though.

I left the pilot not really knowing what the hell is going on or who the hell is who, but still enjoying it. That's pretty standard with shows that aren't set in modern times or at least America. I'm sure all that will unfold, though.

The biggest comparison I felt was to The Tudors, for better or worse. That show had a habit of having lots of nudity, violence, and sex for the sake of having it and turned into a big soap opera. I hope this show will tone that down a bit, cause there was quite a lot of it in this episode. The good thing though is that with it being fiction, there's a lot of fresh ideas and lore which has me excited to see where this goes.

To be fair, I thought the transitions between westeros/across the narrow sea were abrupt even in the books. They very rarely interact with each other and it's looking like Dance is going to be the first time they really combine.

Loved it. Since I'm a longtime fan of the books, I can't speak with authority but I think they did a good job of pulling out the major players and reinforcing who they are without getting the viewer overloaded. At least within the context of "This is an HBO show, you aren't supposed to know what is going on after just one view of the pilot."

And "things I do for love" was done better than I ever imagined. I'm watching Borgias now, but going to catch the next replay just for that scene.

they took a few things from the scene in the book ("no"), but I felt like they missed the whole point. In the book, he actually took his time with her, it's the first time you see Drogo show any gentleness at all.

Of course they can't take fifteen minutes to show foreplay, but I hope they'll at least make an effort to develop the character in a more positive light later in the series.

"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from -- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
Neal Stephenson

Solid B+. Pacing felt a tad weird from time-to-time, but I think it was due to having so much to set up and mixing that with actual action. Not every character got their chance to stand out yet, but those that did all seemed great. I can see why most reviews have talked about how well Viserys was cast, and yeah...he's pretty much nailing it. The Dothraki wedding was pretty sweet. Loved the setting and the mood and all of that. Robert and Ned in the tombs was pretty great as well.

Most critics seem to claim the first two episodes are a bit uneven, but after that the show really takes off. This has me quite excited...this show is going to be so great. Hopefully HBO pulls a Boardwalk Empire and celebrates by announcing season 2 greenlight tomorrow.

they took a few things from the scene in the book ("no"), but I felt like they missed the whole point. In the book, he actually took his time with her, it's the first time you see Drogo show any gentleness at all.

Of course they can't take fifteen minutes to show foreplay, but I hope they'll at least make an effort to develop the character in a more positive light later in the series.

Yeah I hated that scene. They did not characterize it the right way at all.

they took a few things from the scene in the book ("no"), but I felt like they missed the whole point. In the book, he actually took his time with her, it's the first time you see Drogo show any gentleness at all.

Of course they can't take fifteen minutes to show foreplay, but I hope they'll at least make an effort to develop the character in a more positive light later in the series.

Yeah I hated that scene. They did not characterize it the right way at all.

Actually, since we didn't go back there yet I'm going to assume that they're going to show it in the proper light next ep, but doing it this way leaves it on kind of a quasi-cliffhanger going into episode two.

Loved it. The only seen I didn't really 100% like was the "The things I do for love" scene. But that's more in how I pictured the scene. I always imagined him being more resigned to what he had to do, rather than how quickly he said and did the act in the show.

I think so far, they've done an excellent job with the characters given the hour they had.

So far I'm very impressed with what they've done. Granted parts of the dialogue are perhaps a bit more trimmed than I would have liked, but perfectly understandable giving the 1 hour episodic format. Interestingly enough, I have to say I absolutely love the title sequence. The music for the title sequence in particular was awesome with the cello carrying the main theme. It sent shivers down my spine.

I was also impressed by the actor (not sure if they used a stunt person at all, if they did they did a damn good job of hiding it) they got to play Bran. Hot damn that kid can climb.

I was very pleased with it overall: the costumes and settings were as lavish as I've come to expect HBO stuff to be, the characterizations just about exactly matched my expectations, and while it does feel simplified overall compared to the novels, I think they did as good a job as could be done in most ways.

One minor quibble:

Spoiler:

The Dothraki hate and fear the "poison water" of the narrow sea. This is known. It is mentioned, repeatedly. They cannot abide the ocean, and their bone-deep cultural loathing of it is the only thing preventing them from raping and pillaging their way through the Seven Kingdoms just on a lark.

But apparently, even the hydrophobic barbarian Dothraki agree that the seaside is just a fabulous place to hold - and consummate - a wedding!

I'm here to tell you about voting. Imagine you're locked in a huge underground nightclub filled with sinners, whores, freaks and unnameable things that rape pit bulls for fun. And you ain't allowed out until you all vote on what you're going to do tonight [. . .] So you vote for television, and everyone else, as far as your eye can see, votes to fuck you with switchblades. That's voting. You're welcome.

The Dothraki hate and fear the "poison water" of the narrow sea. This is known. It is mentioned, repeatedly. They cannot abide the ocean, and their bone-deep cultural loathing of it is the only thing preventing them from raping and pillaging their way through the Seven Kingdoms just on a lark.

But apparently, even the hydrophobic barbarian Dothraki agree that the seaside is just a fabulous place to hold - and consummate - a wedding!

I mean, Pentos is a port. There's not a hell of a lot of land nearby that could accommodate a khalansar of (if I remember correctly) 100k that isn't by the sea.